Archived: EMED Surrey Heartlands

Ratings

• Overall

  Requires improvement

• Safe

  Requires improvement

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Requires improvement

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Requires improvement

Our view of the service

Date of assessment:11 June 24 to 24 June 2025

EMED Surrey Heartlands provides a non-urgent patient transport service (PTS). This assessment looked at the non-urgent patient transport service which we rated as requires improvement. This was the first assessment of this service.

In our assessment of Patient Transport Services, we found shortfalls in incident investigation training and a lack of feedback to staff who had raised incidents. The service did not always treat people as individuals or made sure their care, and support met their needs and preferences. It was not always easy for people to share feedback or raise complaints about their care. People could not always access the care they needed when they needed it. The service did not have a clear shared vision, strategy, or culture. Not all leaders understood the context in which the service delivered care, treatment, and support. People did not always feel they could speak up and that their voice would be heard.

However, the service worked with people to understand and manage risks. Staff made sure equipment, facilities and technology supported the delivery of safe care. The service assessed and managed the risk of infection and made sure that medicines were safe and met people’s needs. Staff always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. The service supplied appropriate, accurate and up-to-date information in formats that were tailored to individual needs. The provider worked towards an inclusive and fair culture by improving equality and equity for people who work for them.

We found 3 breaches of the legal regulations relating to treating people as individuals, responding to people’s immediate needs, and governance.